Tuesday, June 23, 2009

It's almost 2AM and I finally have time to blog - sorry for the hiatus! Melanie came on Saturday and we've been out and about ever since.

My new residence is at Banana Backpacker's Hostel in Insadong. Right now, I'm sharing a room with 5 other girls - 3 of which are from Japan. The room contains 6 "lockers" and 3 sets of bunk beds. The whole hostel is quite quirky and is extremely colourful and there are a ton of free amenities such as free irons, laundry, luggage storage, breakfast, tea and coffee, and wi-fi in the lobby area. There's also a TV and 3 public computers for you to use, too. Considering how it looks, it's actually pretty clean. An ajumma comes in every morning and scrubs our bathroom, wipes down the floors, empties our garbage and windex-es the mirrors. And there's always someone at the front desk until 12AM which is helpful -- they play some catchy music all day long~

Anyway, I've so far shown Melanie to Myeong Dong, Insadong, a bit of Dongdaemun, a bit of Anam, Coex, Cheonggyecheon, Kyobo bookstore, and Apgujeong. Yesterday, we visited the Leeum Samsung Museum in Itaewon!

Leeum Samsung Museum (actually, it's much closer if you get off at the station before: Hangangjin Station - exit 6, I believe. It's only a 5 minute walk to the museum from there).The museum consists of 2 different buildings - they both have a different feel to them but they're designed by the same architect. Museum 1 is the "traditional" side and Museum 2 is the "modern" side. We rented audio headphone devices that automatically told us about the piece we were standing in front of~This is a pillow (for royalty) made out of Celadon pottery in the 15th Century.This sort of painted pottery is extremely rare. The "rich cobalt blue ink" is imported from somewhere in Persia via China so it was so expensive, you would only find these pieces in the royal households.A mini pagoda~The modern side didn't have as many pieces on display, but there were quite a few outstanding ones I wish I could have taken a picture of!This is probably the most distinctive part of the museum... giant spiders.Then, across the street from the museum, we totally indulged on the most decadent chocolates + pasteries at Passion5!Chandelier~We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, but the whole interior was so chic and had a boutique/exclusive feel to it. The chocolate shop had it's own air conditioned room and housed the heavenly-ist chocolate I've ever tasted. We tried green tea, basil, rose, dark, and cheese chocolate.I liked their motto:I was very inspired to open something like this at home! I'm actually pretty surprised this cafe/bakery/chocolate shop is in/around Itaewon - it seems like something that would fit right in in Kangnam.

We also visited a couple random museums in subway stations and along Insadong:Apple cores (picture)In front of It's Skin in Myeong Dong~Cheonggyechon--- Korean kids are cute! They pose for pictures really well.Around Insadong:Apgujeong - window of the Hyundai GalleryHanging out at De Chocolate Coffee on Rodeo where chocolate isn't the only sweetest thing..

We're going to spend half the day at a jjimjilbang (Korean sauna) tomorrow~